Methods to insert catheters in left atrium and/or ventricles through surgery—an outer cut on the chest wall—, are well known and known to be a very sensitive and high-risk approach from a patients point of view and requires close post surgical control, or in the venous system of the heart, which method is often impossible to carry out and requires considerable expertise in performance, thus limiting general application. Currently, there exists an additional technique, which consists of intracavity stimulation of the left ventricle; however, it is complex and difficult to perform.
The insertion of catheters in right atrium and/or ventricles is currently performed in a simple way by inserting the catheter in the subclavian, cephalic or jugular vein after a simple puncture and by means of a catheter introducer.
However, this is not the case when the catheter is to be inserted in the left atrium and ventricle, because there is no direct path through the mentioned veins; as per the previous art, surgery is required in order to insert the catheter outside (the epicardial region) the atrium and/or the left ventricle, including a cut in the external chest wall, which procedure entails a great risk. On the other hand, this technique offers a very restricted access to the left atrium and ventricle, thus preventing the choice of the best implantation site.
There is the option to insert the catheter in the venous system of the heart, which is often impossible to perform due to the morphologic structure of the system, requiring considerable expertise in the technique and limiting its general application.
Another technique uses the transseptal puncture of the atrium to insert the catheter by the antegrade venous route. This technique requires multiple passing of sheaths, balloon catheters and lines through the interatrial septum, successive dilations of the interatrial septum, etc., which turn it complex and increase patients' risk.